How to Set The Beat On Your Pendulum Clock

Often a pendulum clock will stop when it has been moved, bumped or even a too aggressive push to restart a pendulum. It is not broken, only out of beat. This only takes a few minutes to readjust and all pendulum clock owners should learn how as this will happen eventually.

How to Set The Beat of the Pendulum Clock

TIP – Prevention: for wall clocks, always remove your pendulum before taking the clock off the wall. If the pendulum stays in the clock it may scratch the inside of the case as well as change the beat and then the clock may not work.

Check The “Beat”: Listen to the tick-tock on the clock and see if it is nice, even tick-tock. It should sound steady and even like a metronome. You work toward equal time between the TICK and the TOCK. The pendulum needs to swing exactly equal distances from dead center to the left, as from dead center to the right. If a clock is out of beat, the pendulum will swing for a few minutes, then stop even if the clock case is level.

Setting The Beat of the Pendulum Clock
If the beat is irregular like: tock,tick——tock,tick- an adjustment must be made or the clock will stop. This can be done by either try leveling again from left to right by moving the clock very slightly from the bottom until you hear the most even tick-tock. This may not be physically level for the clock case.

If this fails or you don’t wish to have a clock case crooked on your wall, you may take off the pendulum and slightly move the pendulum leader from left to right or right to left until it almost or starts moving back and forth on its own. It should have the same feel from dead center to right and dead center to left. Rehang the pendulum and the clock should continue and you are done.

If setting the beat has not solved the problem and it is a newer clock, please check the steps below:

My clock is in beat, but the pendulum still stops swinging on my Clock

Hands have to be free! Make sure the hands are free from touching the other hands and second hand. Also, make sure the hands are not touching the dial at any point. If the hands are touching, this will stop the clock. Slightly bend the hands away from each other by holding the hand still toward the center and slightly pulling the hands away from each other.

Is the Pendulum dragging? Look into the lower side window and watch the pendulum swing. If the pendulum is touching the chime rods toward the back or touching the weights toward the front, the pendulum will stop. This indicates a problem in leveling from front to rear.

Leveling ~ Your clock will need to be level from front to back and side to side.

Hi Jennifer,
There are a few areas that commonly cause this and you may be able to correct it. First..it sounds like the beat is good if you are hearing an even tick tock while the pendulum is swinging. Check to make sure the level on the from front to back is good. If the clock is too high on the back, it can cause the pendulum to drag on the weights stopping the clock. If it is too high in the front, it may be touching the chime rods again causing it to stop. If it not one of these issues, it might be time to get a good clock tech to take a look. It may need cleaning and oiling and this is an area where you really need a pro.
Good Luck,
Robert

Just bought a newer Ethan Allen grandfather clock at auction. Got a great deal!! Got it home and it didn’t work after putting weights and pendulum back on. Your suggestion got it going again. I can’t thank you enough!!!

Inherited a Pearl grandfather clock from my parents. Not sure how many years since it worked, but we just moved it from Florida to Missouri in January (weights and pendulum removed). It is set up and I believe level. I set the time (using the minute hand, of course) and wound it. After giving the pendulum a push, nothing happened: no tick-tock, no hand advancement. It appears a visit from a professional clockmaker may be needed, but wonder if you have any ideas I might try first. Thank you for your informative articles.

Hi Doug…It is difficult to set the beat if you cannot hear the clock ticking. I believe it best to contact a repair agent where they may be able to help you. You should be able to find a good tech at:http://www.howardmiller.com/service_center_locator
I hope a grandfather clock service center is close by for you.
Good Luck,
Robert

Hello Mike…We are glad this worked for you. This is the primary reason many key wound wall clocks do not function after they are moved from one location to another. Let us know when you are ready when you need more Wall Clocks. Thank You, Robert

Thank you so much for your advice as i never knew a clock had to be level from front to back, I put a little piece of folded paper under the front edge and now my clock is level and working perfect. thank you again.

Thank you so much for this guidance, our clock is from the 1900 and left to me by my mother, we had to transport it from the UK to Australia and for over 3 years it has sat in silence as I could never get it started. Btw it was all about the beat of the clock and your video did it.
Now running perfectly. Thank You.

I knew something was awry with my stalling Grandmother clock when it was going tick-tock—tick-tock—tick-tock. All it took was your post and video and a little nudge of the pendulum hanger to restore the beat and continuous running. Thank you so much.